BEIJING, May 20 (Reuters) -Authorities in Tibet have widened a ban on pictures of the region's exiled god-king, the Dalai Lama, from monasteries and temples to include schools and private homes, local residents said on Monday.

The tough crackdown on images of the man Beijing blames for inciting anti-Chinese unrest in the Himalayan region came amid signals that pro-independence activists have taken to more violent means, including bombings, to back their campaign. In recent days, China has ordered police to crack down hard on separatist 'terrorists" in the predominantly Buddhist region of Tibet as well as in northwestern Xinjiang, where officials have warned of a Moslem holy war.

"We have launched mobilisation meetings and will carry out home-by-home searches this afternoon to check for possession of photographs of the Dalai Lama," one factory official said by telephone from Lhasa on Monday.

He said officials were not sure how they would deal with people who opposed the edict.

Last month, the government of Tibet issued a ban on the display of photographs of the region's spiritual and temporal ruler, the Dalai Lama, in temples and monasteries in the deeply religious region.

Attempts to impose the ban in monasteries and temples around Lhasa provoked anger among lamas, local residents said.

One monk was shot and wounded by police on May 7 after monks threw rocks and fighting broke out with a working group sent to enforce the edict in the 15th-century mountain-top Ganden monastery, 40 km (25 miles) east of Lhasa, reports from the region said.

Local residents said the monastery had since been sealed off.

School authorities in the Tibetan capital said they had begun meetings of pupils to publicise the restrictions.

They were carrying out checks for displays of pictures of the deeply venerated leader who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for his peaceful campaign for more autonomy for his homeland, they said.

"Some families still have pictures of the Dalai Lama," one school official said by telephone. "It is a problem of belief."

However, most of those who refused to take down Dalai Lama pictures were the elderly, he added.

"Some of the people who hang Dalai Lama pictures, especially old men, believe he is a religious leader but other people have a political purpose," he said.

The Dalai Lama fled into exile in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule over Tibet and Beijing accuses him of fomenting Tibetan independence and stirring up anti-Chinese sentiment to try to split China from his home in India.

Pictures of the Dalai Lama had been allowed in Tibet since 1979 as part of a Chinese decision to allow religious freedom.

Beijing's tolerance of support for the Dalai Lama has been strained since last year when he identified an alternative choice to that of China's as the reincarnated Panchen Lama, the region's second most important spiritual leader.

China last week ordered police in the restive Himalayan region to stamp out a campaign of "terrorist" bombings by groups that support the exiled Dalai Lama, the Tibet Daily said.

"The biggest hidden danger to our region's stability and security is from the sabotage and trouble created by the Dalai Lama separatist clique," a Tibet Daily editorial said.

"Political incidents and some criminal cases fully expose their ugly faces," it said. "We must combine the crackdown against criminals with the struggle against such separatist political activities."